medicine

<p>Throw away your filters because Snapchat is about to get really gross.</p><p>That&rsquo;s right, instead of making yourself look like some cute dog, Snapchat Spectacles are making it easier than ever to gross out your followers. Case in point, Shafi Ahemed, a UK surgeon recorded a hernia procedure. Of course, this was for his students, which actually could do the world a lot of good, but, seriously, gross, dude.</p><p><iframe src="//giphy.com/embed/l4Jzdm227Ui0jPyTe" width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/roosterteeth-rooster-teeth-rtpodcast-l4Jzdm227Ui0jPyTe">via GIPHY</a></p><p><a href="http://mashable.com/2016/12/21/snapchat-spectacles-surgery-uk/?utmcid=hp-r-1#kRnWkXckqqV">According to <em>Mashable</em></a>, &ldquo;Around 200 students watched as he explained the procedure in 10-second snippets, showing different parts of the anatomy and detailing various procedures such as the initial incision.&rdquo;</p><p>So now, what, 200 students have a better idea of what it&rsquo;s actually like to go into surgery, while the rest of us have to suffer with this totally disgusting video. Thanks for nothing, Snapchat Spectacles.</p>

“A little bit of backstory - a friend of my mum works in a poisons department at a children's hospital in Sydney. She made this, to be blown up into a poster, but didn't have a good camera other than her phone. She rang up, and I took the photos for her with a nice DSLR. I thought it was pretty interesting, as a ridiculous number of the people I asked couldn't tell which was which, so I figured I'd share it here.”

Point taken. This holiday season, watch what you’re putting in your body!

Suffering from a rare genetic disorder called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Joanna Watkins lives under the threat of almost everything, including her husband and all but 15 types of food. And things keep getting worse.

While she’s been in for treatments, the MCAS isn’t responding to medication nor chemotherapy. So she’s unable to really see her husband, Scott, because of chemicals people release. What’s more, her house suffered from water damage, and the couple had to move in with a friend to avoid a rapidly-developing mold problem. If she comes in contact with things like pollen or even body odor, she suffers from anaphylactic reactions, including migraines and loss of breath.

Joanna lives within the confines of an air-locked bedroom all day everyday. According to People, “At this point, her body only tolerates a total of 15 foods (including spices). She eats just once per day and it’s always one of two meals she knows her body can tolerate: organic grass-fed beef (chuck roast cut) with water, celery and organic carrots and organic parsnips that are peeled, cored and mashed or ground lamb with peeled organic cucumbers.”

“I have been eating these same two meals for over a year of my life and they still taste good to me,” Joanna said. “I love to eat — it’s a joy for me. It’s just a gift that I can keep eating these foods.”

Still, she and her husband remain hopeful. On their GoFundMe page, they have raised over $100,000 to pay for housing renovations that would include a state of the art air filtration system.

“We have been so showered with love and support – I know I have been deeply blessed,” Joanna told People. “This is really hard and it is painful, but we haven’t been left to face it alone and that is a beautiful thing.”

And teens keep getting better this year as a high school science class in Sydney, Austrailia just recreated the pill Daraprim, which infamous pharmabro Martin Shkreli hiked to $750 last year, for a measly $2.

According to the Washington Post, after Alice Williamson, a postdoctoral teaching fellow at the University of Sydney, “couldn’t stop thinking” about what Shkreli did, she teamed up with Sydney Grammar to see if she could get some students to make the drug cheaper.

“In February, the group of students began spending about an hour before and after school working to recreate the drug, with the help of their science teachers, using a recipe from a patent. They posted all of their work online periodically through Open Source Malaria, which allowed scientists to provide them with guidance and feedback.

“The students spent about $15 on the material needed to produce 3.7 grams of Daraprim — about $100,000 worth of the drug in the U.S. market, Williamson said.”

Shkreli, you know that guy who spends most of his time exploiting very sick people and then smiling about it, didn’t seem too impressed though.

If it often feels like that the bad guys won and the Empire’s strike back was the final one, keep in mind that good things still happen on our little blue marble.

Case in point: This HIV vaccine, which will be released on Wednesday, could be the “final nail n the coffin” for the virus. Set to enroll over 5,000 sexually active men and women between the ages of 18 and 35, the study will be the “largest and most advanced HIV clinical trial to take place in South Africa, where more than 1,000 people a day are infected with HIV,” according to TIME.

Doctors are very optimistic about the effectiveness of this vaccine, which was found to be 31.2 perfect effective at preventing the virus.

“If deployed alongside our current armory of proven HIV prevention tools, a safe and effective vaccine could be the final nail in the coffin for HIV,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

“If an HIV vaccine were found to work in South Africa, it could dramatically alter the course of the pandemic,” said Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council CEO.

TIME reports the success of South Africa’s treatment program:

South Africa has more than 6.8 million people living with HIV, but the country has had remarkable success in rolling out an HIV drug treatment program, which the government says is the largest in the world.

Life expectancy, which sank as the epidemic grew, has rebounded from 57.1 years in 2009 to 62.9 years in 2014.

Even in a world overrun by bad news, people are still doing good work.

Bad news for those in need of pain relief in Arkansas. The Arkansas Supreme Court has decided to remove issue 7, a new medical marijuana law, to the November 8 ballot. Despite 142,000 early voters having already voted for issue 7, which allows patients with specific medical conditions and doctor's approval to purchase marijuana from dispensaries, the court has decided not to add it on the November ballot.

"Justices tossed out more than 12,000 signatures that were approved by election officials for the proposal, saying supporters didn't comply with laws regarding registration and reporting of paid canvassers," reports ABC News. "The decision left the group nearly 2,500 signatures shy of what was needed to qualify for the ballot."

Arkansas voters do have another marijuana-related issue on the ballot, t Issue 6 is up for a vote but has more restrictions, namely it doesn't include a provision that allows patients to grow their own if they don't live near a dispensary.

Anyway, the whole thing seems to be harshing a lot of mellows, which is never cool. Also, you know, this type of thing could have really helped people, as many were quick to point out.

This woman posted a photo gallery of her story on Imgur which led to a diagnosis of a genetic disease that affects connective tissues called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS). She explains the backstory in the description of the follow up picture post:

Five months ago, I posted "The Story Of A Broken Dancer." In this post, I told the story of how all I've ever wanted was to be a professional dancer, but that countless injuries and unexplained medical issues were coming in between me and my dream. Well, after posting this, hundreds of Imgurians commented on the post and messaged me saying I should look at different conditions or diseases they thought I had, but one that I received overwhelmingly was "Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Hyper Mobility Type III." I looked into it and decided it was worth a shot to get the testing done, and as of this morning, I have been officially confirmed to have EDS.

If this isn't the pinnacle of modern day science then we're not sure what is. In an act of fearlessness Reddit User, Titantool, opened the floor to any and all questions that internet users might have about life with a penis implant.

He was involved in a near-fatal accident five years ago, in which he sustained many broken bones, and also a back injury that caused partial paralysis. He can now walk a little, but still has partial paralysis, which includes bowel, bladder, and sexual function.

Thanks to modern medical innovation and a very talented surgeon, he can now inflate a full erection.

One of the more colorful questions asked was whether the testicle that's a plastic ball, feels like a plastic ball?

He answered:

She says it feels weird. I agree. It took me quite a while to get over that feeling of a third ball in my scrotum. It's avery unique feeling to it. It has texture so you can hang on to it better when inflating.

'It's firm but squishy though and not hollow feeling. It only feels hard when the tubes are full of saline and you can't squeeze anymore in there.

Of course some folks had to know whether he gained, or rather lost any length in the process. He answered candidly as usual, writing that he lost a little length and now measures in at five inches.

“While we know this professor meant the candy to serve as a treat, the method of distribution may have confused pre-school children whose parents have taught them not to take pills from pharmaceutical bottles,” they wrote. “We regret further that professors and administrators are human and, although eager to share information about growing careers, sometimes make mistakes.”

The school also emphasized that it has a series of lectures about drug and alcohol dependency, with Meredith Baxter from “Family Ties” scheduled speaking at the school on February 26.

Commenters on the post don’t seem to think that’s enough.

“This is appalling, and as a parent of three children I consider this teacher’s behavior negligent,” writes one commenter on Facebook. “She teaches a class having to do with medication, then she should be educated enough not to hand out medication bottle with candy in it.”